Wainwright Intermediate School, Tacoma WA

Original Research by School Decision on Wainwright Intermediate School

Wainwright Intermediate School serves grades four through eight in Tacoma, Washington, within the Tacoma School District. The school occupies a single campus in this mid-sized port city, which blends working waterfront industry with distinct neighborhoods like Hilltop and Proctor. The surrounding housing market is relatively expensive; home values sit above the national median, and the typical rent is also elevated. For a family considering this area, the cost of entry is substantial, and the city's steady population growth suggests ongoing demand.

The student body is diverse. White students make up the largest single group, followed by a substantial share of students who identify as two or more races, a notable Hispanic population, and a smaller but present Black student community. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a population with significant economic need. The school's enrollment is small for the grades it covers, which may allow for more individualized attention than a larger middle school could offer.

On state assessments, Wainwright's performance is mixed and shows a clear pattern. In English language arts, proficiency in fourth and fifth grades is solid, with roughly half to three-fifths of students meeting the bar. The picture becomes more uneven in the upper grades, where sixth-grade results drop sharply, though seventh and eighth grades recover to around the midpoint. In math, the numbers are consistently lower. Fourth grade stands as the strongest year, but from fifth grade onward, the share of students reaching proficiency is thin, falling to a low point in sixth grade. Science results are available for fifth and eighth grades; the fifth-grade cohort performs moderately well, while eighth-grade science is softer. Taken together, the school's overall proficiency index falls below the midpoint among districts in Pierce County. A parent looking at these results would see a school where early intermediate grades are a relative strength in reading, but where math achievement across the board is an area of concern and where performance can vary sharply from one grade to the next.

Because Wainwright is an intermediate school serving only through eighth grade, it has no graduation rate to report. No data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, or course access was available for this profile, so a full picture of the school environment and student attendance patterns cannot be drawn from this evidence alone. The district's recent boundary changes or school closures were not surfaced in the available research, so those details remain unaddressed here.

Wainwright is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet. Its setting within Tacoma means families have access to the city's museums, parks, and higher education institutions, but the school itself does not advertise any specialized program or theme. For a family weighing this school, the central trade-off is straightforward. The school serves a high-need population with a small enrollment in an expensive housing market, and its academic results show a real split: reasonable literacy achievement in the early intermediate grades contrasts with pronounced difficulty in mathematics at nearly every tested level. A parent would want to investigate how the school addresses math instruction and what supports are in place for students who are not meeting benchmarks, and whether the grade-to-grade swings in English proficiency reflect cohort differences or something structural.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 33% · ▲ 15 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median · even with county median

Grade 535%

School 35% · District 37% · ▼ 1 pts below district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 616%

School 16% · District 28% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 22 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 732%

School 32% · District 35% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 6 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 826%

School 26% · District 25% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 8 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 460%

School 60% · District 46% · ▲ 14 pts above district

▲ 11 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 551%

School 51% · District 25% · ▲ 26 pts above district

▼ 2 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 68% · ▼ 32 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 13 pts below county median

Grade 746%

School 46% · District 43% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 4 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Grade 852%

School 52% · District 43% · ▲ 9 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median · even with county median

Science

Grade 549%

School 49% · District 49%

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 36% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 3 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

This schoolTacoma School District, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 3Lower-income36%Higher-income68%32 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income46%Higher-income74%29 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income28%Higher-income74%46 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income32%Higher-income43%11 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income37%Higher-income58%21 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income46%Higher-income60%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 3Lower-income23%Higher-income29%6 pp gap

Grade 4Lower-income31%Higher-income66%34 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income22%Higher-income47%25 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income15%Higher-income18%3 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income16%Higher-income50%34 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income22%Higher-income32%10 pp gap